Learning to follow through on your Dailies will probably be the most important thing you will do to increase your productivity training. We have a tendency to think that if we don’t get to our “long list,” we won’t accomplish much. This just isn’t true. What we do every day is what really makes us productive. The dailies!

Likewise, we have a tendency to think that we have to make multiple changes at one time in our lives in order to really have an impact. Another non-truth!

Freezer cooking. Crock pots. Semi-homemade. Instant pot. Microwaves. Casseroles. One dish skillets. All of these phrases describe ways by which people everywhere are trying to be more efficient in the kitchen. Time is at a premium for families everywhere. Cooking at all, much less taking the time to cook truly healthful, real food meals, is hard to do. I did a podcast a while back (before I was even cooking so low carb/sugar-free/low grain) detailing five ways I have found to be more efficient in the kitchen. These tips are useful for all types of cooks.

When I was homeschooling seven kids for thirty-two years, I would often tell my kids, “Every day can’t be special.” Oh, I loved making things special for my kids—but I also wanted them to love (and maybe even crave) “normal.” Just be able to do the stuff day in and day out. Do those things that made them successful students and kids. And so it is with eating more healthfully and eating for weight management. Every day can’t be special. And one of the worst sabotages in weight management is assigning “special” to every day—and indulging way too much in foods and/or amounts that will not help us meet our health and weight goals.

I have been creating Facebook Live videos on organization and productivity for parents and entrepreneurs. I love organization! And I love being productive! I want to introduce each one to you on the blog (one per week) for those who not only love healthy cooking and weight management but also love efficiency in their home, homeschool, and business! So…here’s the first one for you! I will give you a rough outline of the contents to help you follow along….and to glance at to see if it is a topic that pertains to you. Blessings to you as you seek to “feel great and live well”—and organize and produce! 🙂

Since I published my two low carb flour mixes, I have gotten questions concerning when to use each one, etc. So until I get the dozens of recipes up that go with each mix, I thought I would write a general post about the mixes, direct you to some recipes using them, etc. So this post will detail more about my Very Low Carb Flour Mix and my Sprouted Low Carb Flour Mix!

First of all, check out the handy chart that shows carb counts in each of my flour mixes as well as other low carb (and non low carb) flours.

In my four years of low carb baking and cooking, I have tried them all. Some have turned out great. And some not so great. Baking with low carb “flours” can be challenging. They just don’t act like the flours we are used to baking with. They don’t taste like them either! So what do you do with almond flour, coconut flour, flax, oat fiber, and more? Which low carb flours are truly low and which are not? What about incorporating other flours together to make a more acceptable-to-family flour mix or flour blends?

INTRODUCING MY DOUGH BABY

I make many low carb “doughs” and “batters.” I don’t mind a cream cheese and mozzarella biscuit. I actually love breakfast sandwich fillings or jam on my “Not So Oopsie” rolls. (And they’re also good made into “cream cheese danishes”!) I like my crepe recipe—both savory and sweet. But oh for yeast dough! And even more oh for low carb yeast dough…and low carb rolls, low carb pizza dough, low carb cinnamon rolls and more—made out of more “real tasting” flours!

I’m not a fan of some of the doughs available for low carb or healthy bakers. I don’t like trying to pass off a “quick bread” (i.e. in a mug) or with flax and oat fiber as a bread. I don’t like the feel on my teeth (okay, they make me cringe a little) of doughs that are primarily made of cheese (or the flavor or the fat and calorie content!). And I really don’t like the taste of psyllium husk in a batter.

Yes, those doughs and batters are extremely low carb (often low carb/high fat/super calorie dense), which makes them ideal for keto situations. But I haven’t enjoyed them too much.

Since I had my bout with very symptomatic pre-diabetes a couple of years ago, I have been trying to learn to cook and bake dishes with fewer carbs/lower glycemic index. About a year into this cooking (several months ago), I realized that one of the things that I missed the most were my one-dish meals.

I have been a *freezer cook* for twenty-five years now, and one of the greatest benefits of freezer cooking is pulling a nearly-complete meal out of the freezer, adding a salad, and calling it dinner. With lower carb cooking, this was seldom a reality for me.

Instead, I would pull a meat entrée (meat loaves, meat balls, marinated chicken breasts, cheddar coated chicken thighs, etc.) out of the oven then try to figure out what low carb/healthy sides I could put with it—while still keeping college and high school boys and my husband satisfied and full.

I missed the ease of the one dish entrée desperately, so I have been on a search for more “casserole-y” types of healthy entrees for the past several months. I have a few for you that will be coming up in the next few weeks—and this is one of those.

Most of you know that in addition to being a healthy recipe creator, blogger, productivity teacher (i.e. efficient expert wanna-be!), tutor, and curriculum author of over one hundred books, I am also a hope dealer—bringing happiness and health to people as a Gold Ambassador with Plexus Worldwide.

Recently on a visit to my sister’s in North Carolina (from Indiana), my sister made her mother-in-law’s old fashioned mac and cheese. I used to make homemade macaroni and cheese a lot, but since I cook primarily low carb (and I am tired of making sauces, etc. that are so time consuming), I was especially interested in her recipe.

First of all, this could be easily made ahead. That is always my first criteria (it seems) in cooking since I have been a freezer and mix cook for twenty-five years. Secondly, it didn’t require a white sauce or a cheese sauce that you cook on top of the stove (really, one pan to boil the noodles and one dish to layer the casserole are the only “pans” needed). Third, it had a few other “lower carb” ingredients (half and half or cream, eggs, butter, and cheese), so I could envision immediately some low carb options that I am anxious to try out and share with you.

I have been talking extensively in podcast episodes (see Five Tips for Efficiency in the Kitchen HERE) and in blog posts about my cycle cooking (PODCAST) and just the general idea of preparing meats to be used in dishes. (See my Shredded Chicken post here.)

Having meats ready to use in recipes is one of the best kitchen efficiency tips that I can give people. It truly makes creating a quick meal doable.

Over twenty-five years ago, with four children eight and under, we learned the value of a timer. We began using them to teach our children time management. We would have them do various tasks and set the timer so that they could see how long things take when they really applied themselves.

For example, in setting up their morning routine charts, we would have them run and do each task that was going to be on their chart as we timed them, then when we made the charts, we would put the time that it should take (based on our timing session) in parentheses following each line item on the chart. (This also helped us to know what was reasonable to expect in a certain time period.)